BONGANI MBHELE (PART 2)
Let’s get straight into it. Tell us about your Thanda Royal Zulu alter ego, the one and only Japie Motale, who we reckon could easily have turned into a stand-up comedian after his football career ended. Ha, ha, ha. Eish, there’s a couple of stories, man. What can I say? (Starts thinking) Eish, I don’t know. For example, when we were going to camp, he would come and fetch us because some of the players stayed at the hotel. Sometimes when he got there, we would take time to get out of our rooms and then he would say, “Why are you taking time, Bongani? Stop acting as if you have cars. And uma nishela, kumele nibatshele labantwana ukuthi ‘mina ngihamba nge (when you propose love, you must tell these young girls that ‘I’m using a) train, I don’t have a car’.” Ha, ha, ha. So, when he came and hooted outside, you had to immediately come out. Once you started delaying, he would say, “Don’t forget you don’t have a car. I don’t know how you would get to camp if I were to leave you here. You’ll most probably have to use a train.” Then there was this other funny moment that I’ll never forget. You see, we also had Bennett Mnguni and Patrick Mayo at Thanda. On this one occasion, we had just finished training, and I think Mnguni and Mayo had a meeting to attend or were going somewhere. So, after showering, Mnguni was in formal wear. He and Japie hail from Pretoria, so Japie said to him, in Setswana or Sesotho, “Hey abuti, ai uyijile”, meaning, “Hey brother, you are dressed really nice.” Thereafter, there were whistles from the guys, I suppose it was a sign of how impressed we all were with Mnguni’s dress sense that day. Before we knew it, Mayo appeared from nowhere, also dressed to the nines, a sight that invited Japie’s best comedic side. After taking one good look at him, Japie enquired, “Hey bhuti, uyaphi unxibe njengama (brother, where are you going dressed like a) born-again?” Ha, ha, ha. This led to Mayo directing a swearword at Japie, which I obviously can’t repeat in this family newspaper. Everyone was in stitches. It really was such a funny moment because Mayo was wearing this big jacket and the trousers were as equally oversized.
You mean the suit was dressed in Patrick Mayo, and not the other way round? I’m telling you, even the youngsters were on the floor laughing and Mayo was like, “Japie, you’ll make these young boys disrespect me!” There were so many stories with M’Japan. he realised his dress sense didn’t quite land with the lads. You should have heard him telling Japie, “Undiqhel’ ik***! Undiqhel’ ik***!” But I had a great time with Japie, especially because he was also my roommate in camp. We never really gave each other problems in the room, but sometimes we would be opponents. I remember one time, before he signed for Thanda, we were playing a friendly against them. He arrived there as a trialist, let me putitthatway.Igavehimatoughtime because he was playing as a right back and I was playing as a left winger. So, the following day, the coach lined the players up according to positions – defenders, midfielders and strikers. They said he (Japie)shouldchoosehisteamfromall the players lined up. The coach was going tocomeupwithhisownteamandthen Japie was going to select his too. So, for his first selection, Japie said, “Bongani!” Then the coach asked, “Hawu Japie, of all the defenders, you start with Bongani! Why?” He replied, “Eish, coach, it’s better if he is on my side because I will never sign if he is on the other side.” Ha, ha, ha, everyone just burst out laughing! So, from there, we started clicking and then he signed. The rest is history.
So, who were the other characters at the club?
Katleho Loke. The late Scara Ngobese also came on loan, and the two of us actually hail from the same township. Then you had the likes of Mandla
Tsengwa the goalkeeper and (Sibusiso) “Cosmos” Zwane. We had many characters, man. One time, Japie teased
Ishmael Maluleke, the striker. You will remember that Maluleke liked to dye his hair a bright colour, but one thing about him is that the shape of his head… well, let’s just say what you got on the left is not particularly what you got on the right when it came to his head. So, having noticed this, Japie said to him, “You know Ishmael, if you were a policeman, they would always say you are drunk!” Ha, ha, ha, why he said that is because Ishmael’s police hat would never sit straight on his head due to how the head was shaped on the sides. To say Maluleke was not im ressed by those words would be an
understatement. He lashed out, “Hey Japie, ngizokubulala uyezwa (I’m going to kill you, you hear me)!” Ha, ha, ha. Eish, and if you remember Maluleke’s head, indeed beyingalingani. Kush’ ukuthi besingeke isigqoko sihlale (it was out of shape. That means a hat would not have been able to fit) comfortably. Though we were giggling at training that day, I can tell you it was no laughing matter for Maluleke, he wanted to kill Japie with his bare hands.
Ha, ha, ha. No, man, Japie is crazy. How did he even have the courage to say such? But you must be careful, this is a Mfundisi we’re talking about, there’s no way to associate him with drunkenness. Ha, ha, ha, you understand? I’m sure even if he can see me, he will say, “Hey wena Bongani, manje usayikhumbula lento (so you still remember that)?” You must remember Maluleke was more of a quiet guy, focused, but Japie didn’t care whether you were quiet or not, he would just tease you and we would have a good laugh.
And Scara?
Eish, bekahlupha (he was troublesome)! But I believe that because we were coming from the same township, we had a way of communicating with each other, me and him. If you remember, our coaches at the time were from Sweden, so they liked to make us run. Most of the time, we were running at training. So, when Scara got to training, he would be lazy. They knew that the closest person to him was Bongani, so one time, they came up to me and said, “Hey Bongs, tell your friend that we wanna play him this week, but if he can’t run, we won’t play him. We know that if you can talk to him, he’s going to run.” So, I had to go up to him, take him to the side and tell him, “Hey ndoda, bafuna ukukuqalisa, awuphakamise ama (man, they want to start you, please pull up the) socks.” He then sai dtome,“Hayi! Lana kanti ntwana singama soldier (No! Are we soldiers here, my boy)?” We then went to play Free State Stars, I remember very well. They introduced him as a substitute in the 70th minute. In the 82nd minute, he scored and the score was now 1-1. Soon after he scored, we all went up to him to hug him and celebrate with him, but you know what he did? He just pushed us away and said, “Wowu! Wowu! Wowu! Ngiyekeleni, ngiyekeleni (Wait! Wait! Wait! Leave me alone).” We were like, “Hawu! Manje yini (What’s the issue now), Scara?” He said, “Angithi aniyitsheli le (You aren’t telling this) coach ukuthi iqale ngam (to start me).”
We had to turn back, ha, ha, ha.
Tails between legs, ha, ha, ha. Scara Ngobese was truly his own man – he dictated terms on the field, to both opponents and his own teammates. He, and a lot of other big personalities, made SA football so entertaining, but sadly, such characters have since gone the way of the dodo. Catch you again next week. Sure.